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College of Agricultural Sciences researchers inspected an experimental crop at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs. A recent ranking placed Penn State among the top 10 universities worldwide in agriculture and forestry.

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Penn State among top 10 universities worldwide in agriculture and forestry

June 21, 2013

Penn State among top 10 universities worldwide in agriculture and forestry

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State's agricultural and forestry programs rank in the top 10 worldwide, according to a recently released report.

The annual QS World University Rankings by Subject reveal the top 200 universities in the world for 30 individual subjects. Penn State was ranked ninth in the category of agriculture and forestry.

For the 2013 rankings, QS Intelligence Unit (QSIU) -- a division of QS Quacquarelli Symonds, an international higher education data-research firm -- evaluated 2,858 universities and ranked a total of 678 institutions.

Out of the 30 subjects evaluated, Penn State ranks among the top 200 institutions in 29 subjects, placing the University in the top tier of institutions. The 30th subject, pharmacy, is not applicable to Penn State.

The by-subject ranking methodology combines four indicators -- academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per paper and H-index citations -- to form an international ranking of universities. In agriculture and forestry, Penn State ranked first in citations per paper and fifth in H-index citations, which is a widely used measure of faculty research productivity and impact.

"This ranking confirms what we've long believed -- that Penn State is one of the finest universities in the world, particularly where the agricultural sciences are concerned," said Barbara Christ, interim dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences.

"We are gratified by our particularly high ranking in research citations and H-index, which are clear indicators of the value of our faculty's work in addressing important scientific questions surrounding food production, natural-resource utilization and conservation, and environmental quality," she said.

Penn State was one of seven Big Ten universities ranked in the top 30 in agriculture and forestry.

Now in its third year, the QS World University Rankings by Subject is an extension of the overall QS World University Rankings. According to the company's website, the by-subject rankings are designed to "provide comparative information at discipline level and to highlight the excellence of institutions in specialist areas."